At CES TechCrunch ran a "Hardware Battlefield" where 11 hardware startups (most running crowdfunding campaigns) got to pitch their products to a panel of judges. They put together a playlist of all their Hardware Battlefield videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE Among the more interesting entrants are: The Pocket Drone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyvfu23eMOQ&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=3 A 3-rotor drone where the rotor blades and the 3 arms fold up so you can fit the drone into a pocket. (They specify a "cargo pants pocket", so not exactly tiny, but probably smaller than anything else with the same lift capability.) It has enough power to carry a GoPro camera, run for 20-minutes, and includes built-in flight intelligence and GPS navigation. The expected price is $500. Modbot Robot Building https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9LwsphEjY&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=6 A modular robot building kit consisting of cylindrical servos (with integrated driver and position sensor), tubes, and connectors. They pitch it as if you can build "anything" with it, but clearly it is aimed at building articulated arms. They supply open source drivers for Arduino and other open hardware platforms. CubeSensor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjiANh6nVY&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=9 These are small, stylish boxes about 1.5" square that contain a bunch of sensors, such as light, sound, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and air quality (detects volatile compounds). They're intended to measure environmental conditions that have the most impact people. They have some sort of mesh networking built-in and I think bridge to WiFi for accessing the sensor data. They also have a built-in multi-color LED to give an overall assessment of the environmental quality. While you can capture lots of data from them, it's less clear whether that will lead to many compelling applications. One suggested use is that they can predict your chance of catching the flu in a monitored area, as they capture all the attributes needed to go into a prediction formula for that (temperature, humidity, occupancy density). The founders wife says she uses then to tell her when it is time to air out the house. It seems more likely they'll end up as a niche product used by indoor air quality consultants to monitor office buildings. I believe the price on these was $300 for a 3-pack. CubeSensor won the Hardware Battlefield competition. Driblet Water Usage Monitor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isCKuSrPZFk&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=8 I've seen some water flow measuring devices that attach non-invasively to an existing pipe, but this one requires plumbing in a sensor (internally uses an impeller). On the upside, it generates power from the water flow, and thus doesn't need a power source. It captures flow and temperature and makes it available via WiFi. They have an app that asks you about your household size (number of people, etc.) and then will recommend a target water usage to hit in order to achieve conservation. They envision multiple sensors being used to monitor showers, sinks, and irrigation, rather than one unit for an entire house. (That also means for locations where you have hot and cold, you either need to use two devices, or plumb it in after the mixing occurs. A future version might be integrated into a shower head.) It is expected to sell for $80. Also... Fin's Gesture Control (A ring you wear on a finger that detects gestures and communicates with a device via Bluetooth.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvq6gOKkow8&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=4 The Urb-E Scooter (A fold-up electric scooter to get you the last mile of your commute from the bus or train to your office.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keSgqmID0SQ&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLHRxVckaE8daod0OJat8CMWIFtgLQUHwR LiveMap Motorcycle Heads Up Display (GPS navigation you attach to a helmet; the prototype looks like they mounted a small square of plexiglas in the rider's line of vision, and aimed a pico projector at it; production version will have everything integrated into a helmet selling for $1500; also includes Bluetooth headset and video recording capability.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUV5rwzm5kI&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=13 Health2Sync (An adapter that interfaces to a bunch of glucose meters and converts the digital output from the meters into an analog audio signal that then gets fed into the audio-in jack of an iPhone so the data can be tracked and shared with health professionals; seems very lame that 4+ years after the introduction of the smartphone that we still have no universal interface for peripherals and have to resort to hacks like this.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j83BSoowEIo&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=12 -Tom _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking
